Hardstone carving, in art history and archaeology, is the artistic carving of semi-precious stones, such as jade, rock crystal, agate, onyx, jasper, serpentinite, or carnelian, and for objects made in this way. Normally the objects are small, and the category overlaps with both jewellery and sculpture. Hardstone carving is sometimes referred to by the Italian term pietre dure; however, pietra dura is the common term used for stone inlay work, which causes some confusion.

Jade is an umbrella term for two different types of decorative rocks used for jewelry or ornaments. Jade is often referred to by either of two different silicate mineral names: nephrite, or jadeite. Nephrite is typically green, although may be yellow, white or black. Jadeite varies from white or near-colorless, through various shades of green, to lavender, yellow, orange, brown and black. Rarely it may be blue. However these names are mineralogically incorrect. Both the amphibole jade (nephrite) and pyroxene jade are actually mineral aggregates (rocks) rather than mineral species and thus should not be described by mineral species names. Nephrite was deprecated by the International Mineralogical Association as a mineral species name in 1978. This makes the name "nephrite" mineralogically correct for referring to the rock. As for jadeite, since this is a legitimate mineral species, its name should not be used for the pyroxene jade rock. In China, the name jadeite has been replaced with fei cui, the traditional Chinese name for this gem that was in use long before Damour created the name in 1863.